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This Is Not Your Parents' Psychology Honor Society: Reviewing a Year of Innovations in Psi Chi

Jason Young, PhD, Psi Chi Past-President, Hunter College, CUNY

As I reflect on the past year in
which I served as President of Psi Chi, I want to highlight several new
developments that will change the way our members interact with and benefit
from their psychology honor society. Many of these will enhance the ways that
members communicate with Psi Chi and each other, as well as raise the bar for
opportunities available to members into the future.

This past year reflected a major
effort by Psi Chi's Central Office staff to roll out a new website that better
meets the needs of 21st century Psi Chi members.Go to www.psichi.org and
you will see that not only has the appearance changed to a much cleaner, more
visually appealing format, but many new features also help members and faculty
advisors on such basic tasks as online applications for membership and awards
and grants.Our new website will also provide a continual rotating display
of accomplishments by members, chapters, and alumni; giving more of a face to
the thousands of members and chapters that make Psi Chi the largest academic
honor society in the world.Our staff continue to make improvements that
will help our website provide more interactive ways for members to connect for
social, research, and career opportunities. Check back often for new
improvements!

Apart from the website, Psi Chi
has heard from our members that more funding opportunities are always
appreciated. Among the biggest changes in the past year has been an expansion
in our Travel Grants program. Both undergraduate and graduate students may
apply for funding to travel not only to national and regional conventions
traditionally sponsored by Psi Chi, but also to any psychology-themed
conference, including the increasingly specialized events that focus on
specific, cutting-edge research topics. While we are always reviewing the
variety of awards and grants that Psi Chi offers and adjusting programs
depending on what members demand, one specific type of award has been notably
lacking in Psi Chi's history—the provision of tuition scholarships. Our Board
of Directors has increasingly heard from members that, with the increasing cost
of higher education, such scholarships would be much appreciated. As a result,
this past year, Psi Chi's Board approved the development of a plan to grow a
pool of funds to support such scholarships in the future. It will take some
time to develop, but the seeds have been planted and the hope is that within a
few years, Psi Chi scholarships will be available.

A third area of innovation this
past year has been Psi Chi's formal affiliation with the Center for the History
of Psychology (CHP) located at the University of Akron in Ohio. Increasingly
recognized by major professional organizations as the official archive of the psychology
field, CHP will become the repository for Psi Chi's artifacts from its lengthy
history, including Psi Chi applications from eminent psychologists and
materials from major Psi Chi milestones. CHP will catalog and store Psi Chi
materials so that they are securely protected, making them available for future
scholars doing research on the Psi Chi organization.

Finally, one of the more visible
innovations for Psi Chi that members will encounter when they attend major
psychology conventions is our new exhibit booth. In addition to sharing
information about Psi Chi to prospective members, we intend this booth to serve
as a focal meeting point for members to speak with some of our current officers
and staff. One result we hope to accomplish with this exhibit booth and other
outreach activities is to enhance our reconnections with our alumni members.

Always remember that you are a
member for life and that Psi Chi constantly strives to develop new ways to
provide useful programs and benefits even after you graduate. This year we
focused on making Psi Chi easier to navigate online and ultimately more
supportive of its members through additional travel grants and our upcoming
scholarships program. We are creating connections with our alumni through our
new exhibit booth and CHP. To continue to better Psi Chi for all, we rely heavily
on your input to let us know what we can do for you. Please use the exhibit
booth, psichi.org, your relationship with faculty advisors and regional
vice-presidents, or any of many other Psi Chi resources as an opportunity to
keep in touch.

Jason Young, PhD,
is associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Hunter
College, City University of New York (CUNY), and is also on the graduate
faculty of the School Psychology program at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Dr. Young teaches courses in Research Methods, Attitudes and Persuasion,
Social Cognition, and Evolutionary Psychology, as well as
graduate-level courses in applications of social psychology to social
issues. His research focuses on the influence of emotions on various
judgment and decision-making processes. Since 1995, he has been faculty
advisor to a very active chapter of Psi Chi that has offered major
programs to Hunter’s psychology community, including the Annual Hunter
Psychology Convention, at which students from Psi Chi chapters from the
New York metro area and beyond attend to network and present research.
He served as Psi Chi’s Eastern Region Vice-President from 2007–2011.

Eye on Psi Chi is a magazine designed to keep members
and alumni up-to-date with all the latest information about Psi Chi’s programs,
awards, and chapter activities. It features informative articles about careers,
graduate school admission, chapter ideas, personal development, the various
fields of psychology, and important issues related to our discipline.